Last
Sunday I posted
about the church, and a conversation started by Marcus Goodyear over at
Good Word Editing, The Uncertain Future
of Traditional Faith Communities.
The
church, and the future of the church, has been much on my mind. It’s not that I
have the answers to the problems plaguing the church, and especially the
American church. But I’m seeing more and more people beginning to raise the
questions, and raise them seriously.
These
are four blogs I read on a regular basis that raise and discuss questions about
the church. I follow more; these are only four examples.
Slow Church. Chris Smith is the editor of The Englewood Review of Books. He writes
this blog for Patheos with John Pattison, deputy editor of the Burnside Writers Collective. I don’t
agree with everything they write, but that’s not the point. The point is to
gain an understanding of the whole conversation that’s beginning to happen, and
Slow Church is a vital part of that.
Internet Monk. Internet Monk was
started by Michael Spencer, and he wrote for it for years until his death from
cancer. Now it’s led by Chaplain Mike and Jeff Dunn, with occasional other
writers (Like Martha of Ireland). The posts are consistently good and always
provocative.
Informing the Reformed. This blog by Canadian
pastor Tim Challies is widely read. Tim in unapologetically reformed (well, so
am I, for that matter). He shares books, opinions, thoughts, theology, and
always well-written posts.
Canterbury Tales: Dr. Taylor Marshall
is Roman Catholic. His blog is about questions and issues of concern for Roman
Catholics. But much of what he says applies to the larger church (I’m referring
to the “church universal” here).
This
Monday, The High Calling is beginning a new weekly discussion on David Platt’s Follow
Me. Two years ago, I reviewed
Platt’s Radical
for PRISM Magazine; unfortunately, the review is not available (for free)
online. But it was good. I’ve read the
first three chapters of Follow Me
(and the introduction by Francis Chan) and I think it is exactly the kind of
book I need to be reading to understand these questions about the church. And
myself.
So
please visit The High Calling on
Monday and see what the discussion is about, and perhaps read the book and join
in.
Photograph by Petr Kratochvil via Public
Domain Pictures. Used with permission.
The Washington Post has a good religion columnist. Today, she wrote about the Catholic Church, more specifically why American Catholics, who don't adhere much the directions coming from Rome, do not consider themselves Protestants. She also made the point that the Church is not its leaders but the people who comprise it, and that in the case of American Catholics, the members could not imagine being other than Catholic.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of such conversations going on right now and I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit is at work.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the additional resources, Glynn. I know iMonk and Challies, but haven't heard of the others. I also read Frank Viola (both at Patheos and his own blog) who has a lot to say on this subject as well.
I'm very interested in the discussion at the High Calling and I'll be following it closely. Unfortunately I can't add another book to my ever-growing list.